Ukraine

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 30 August 2001 CPJ press release: UKRAINIAN CAMERAMAN ASSAULTED New York, August 30, 2001 – Aleksey Movsesyan, a 23-year-old cameraman with the independent television station Efir-1 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, was assaulted on the evening of Sunday, August 26, CPJ has confirmed. An assailant struck Movsesyan […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 17 July 2001 CPJ press release: UKRAINIAN MEDIA EXECUTIVE ASSAULTED New York, July 17, 2001 — Oleh Velichko, the head of the Avers media corporation in western Ukraine, was brutally beaten by two unknown assailants outside his home in the late evening hours of Wednesday, July 11, according to […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 10 July 2001 letter to Ukranian President Leonid Kuchma, CPJ strongly condemned the recent murder of prominent television journalist Igor Aleksandrov. Aleksandrov, 45, was the director of Tor, an independent television company based in the city of Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. On the morning of 3 July, […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Ukrainian Prime Minister Anatoly Kinah, RSF expressed outrage over the 3 July 2001 attack on Igor Alexandrov, director-general of the TOR television station, in Slaviansk (in the country’s east). “This journalist, who was previously wrongly sentenced by the Ukrainian justice system, and who had brought his case before the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 28 June 2001 CPJ press release: UKRAINE: NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER SHOT DEAD New York, June 28, 2001 — Oleh Breus, publisher of the regional weekly XXI Vek in the provincial city of Luhansk, was shot dead outside his home last Sunday, according to local press reports and CPJ sources. At […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – In an 18 June 2001 letter to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, CPJ strongly protested the recent conviction of Oleg Liachko, editor of the independent Kyiv weekly “Svoboda”, on defamation charges. On 7 June, Liachko was found guilty by the Minsk District Court in Kyiv of defaming former prime minister Vasyl Durdynets and General […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Leonid Kutchma, RSF expressed indignation over the measures taken by the Ukrainian judicial authorities to compel the mother of murdered journalist Georgiy Gongadze’s to bury her son’s corpse. “Mrs. Gongadze, and her alone, should decide whether or not to bury her son’s body, and when the event should […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed its dismay following the Ukranian Ministry of the Interior’s 15 May 2001 announcement that the bodies of journalist Georgiy Gongadze’s two assassins were found and that the matter was “henceforth explained.” “The ridiculousness of this announcement is only matched by its pure cynicism,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “We […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President of the Ukrainian National Audiovisual Council (UNAC) Boris Kholod, RSF protested the revocation of Radio Continent’s license. Radio Continent is the station where murdered journalist Georgiy Gongadze worked, and which rebroadcasts some programmes by foreign stations in the Ukraine, including the BBC. “Once again, under the disguise of […]

(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: RSF urges new interior minister to put a stop to the violence against journalists and order an investigation of his ministry In a letter to the new minister of the interior, Yuri Smirnov, appointed to his post by President Kuchma on 26 March 2001, Reporters sans […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In an open letter to President Leonid Kuchma, RSF urged a full inquiry into the Ministry of the Interior, after the anticipated resignation of Minister Youri Kravtchenko takes place, in order to uncover who ordered the surveillance, disappearance and killing of Georgiy Gongadze. In November 2000, the journalist’s headless body was found near […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter sent to the United States ambassador in Kiev, Carlos Pascual, RSF urged the FBI team in Ukraine to perform a new autopsy on the body of murdered journalist Georgy Gongadze. After months of serious failures by the Ukrainian legal authorities to do their duty in the framework of the investigation, […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Ukraine’s public prosecutor’s office, RSF supported all the demands of murdered journalist Georgiy Gongadze’s mother, following the prosecutor’s office’s acknowledgement on 26 February 2001 that the journalist was indeed murdered. Despite DNA test results, the prosecutor’s office had until now maintained that the body’s identity could not be positively […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Leonid Kuchma, RSF asked to be allowed to take part in an international investigation into the disappearance of journalist Georgiy Gongadze. The president has agreed in principle to the setting up of an inquiry. “Only an investigation of this kind can fully respond to the urgent need to […]

(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 19 December 2000 RSF press release: Reporters sans frontières denounces serious press freedom situation Despite the Council of Europe’s threats to suspend Ukraine’s membership in 1999, the press freedom situation in the country seriously deteriorated during 2000. Ukraine has joined the list of countries where press freedom is in […]

The following is a 14 December 2000 CPJ press release: CPJ calls for prompt independent investigation of Gongadze disappearance New York, December 14, 2000 — In the wake of allegations linking President Leonid Kuchma and two top aides to the September 16 disappearance of independent journalist Georgy Gongadze, CPJ urges President Kuchma and his government […]